Friday, August 24, 2012

Voice of Vampire Muppet Dies at 78

76...77...78! 78 years is how long Jerry Nelson, voice of Sesame Street's benign blood-sucker, the Count von Count, lived on this planet. He used to scare the crap out of me when I was a kid - the puppet, not the guy - that would be weird. From People magazine:

It's a sad day for numbers.

Jerry Nelson, the puppeteer known for playing the instructional
Count von Count on Sesame Street, died Thursday of unspecified
causes, according to CBC Radio-Canada. He was 78.

Besides the non-threatening vampire, Nelson, a Tulsa native who
grew up in Washington, D.C., also performed Gobo Fraggle on Fraggle
Rock and The Muppet Show's Sgt. Floyd Pepper of the
Electric Mayhem band; "Pigs in Space" stalwart Dr. Julius Strangepork;
Kermit the Frog's nephew Robin; and Gonzo's girlfriend Camilla the
Chicken, among other roles, says the site.

He first
trained with American puppeteer Bil Baird, who was responsible for the
lively "Lonely Goatherd" marionette sequence in the 1965 movie
blockbuster The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews.

That same year, Nelson worked with Muppet creator Jim Henson on
TV's The Jimmy Dean Show, a variety program on which Kermit and
the gang first became popular with American audiences.

Nelson's Sesame Street stint began in the '70s, and he
continued to be the Count until his retirement in 2004.

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